April 6, 2016

Enjoy This Season

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” -- Jeremiah 29:4-9

Where did the day go? I had plans and, once again, what I planned didn’t come to pass because of the many things I didn’t plan that came up along the way. Do you ever travel that road? It can be so frustrating!

But God always gives us what we need and I needed these verses from Jeremiah. I’ve read them before, of course, but this time the writer pointed out that this is what God told His people BEFORE He told them about the good plans He had for them.

Why is that so significant? Because God was telling His people to plant gardens where they were going to be in exile for 70 years. THEN came the good plans.

I am not good at waiting. I’ve said that many times before. Yet sometimes we don’t have a choice. God puts us where He wants us and tells us to stay until it’s time to move on.

At that point, we can choose how we handle where He’s placed us. Do we let our hearts fill with bitterness and impatience or do we open ourselves up to serve and be His hands and feet where we are? The choice belongs to us.

Waiting isn’t passive. It’s active and full of things to do. I think that’s where we sometimes get off track. We think that waiting means we allow our lives to become stagnant and that’s not what it means at all.

We all have seasons in our lives. There are seasons for being children, for advanced learning, for marriage and children and working day after day. I am in the season of caregiving. I cherish this time, yet it is stressful and emotional.

What season are you in? Did you plan it or did life intervene? And are you okay with it? That’s a big one. Learning to be okay where you are, planting a garden and watching it grow and bloom, makes the seasons seem worthwhile.

God has good plans for us. It just may take a while to see them come to fruition. Enjoy the journey.